Description:Swift nektonic squid with a muscular mantle, large head and strong arms. Mantle length up to 29 cm. Mantle width is 17-25 % of mantle length. Fin is terminal, rhomboidal and wide. Arms bear two rows of suckers with denticulate rings. Suckers of lateral arms in males are conspicuously enlarged. Length of the longest arm in males is 55-90 % of the mantle length, in females 48-57 %. The widened club bears 8 transverse rows of suckers at the end of the club. Suckers of the middle rows in the central part of the club are greatly enlarged.

Habitat:Lives at the bottom at depths from 40-50 to 500-600 m and in midwater.

Distribution:Eastern Atlantic from southern England to Namibia; Mediterranean Sea; tropical western Atlantic in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea from Cape Canaveral to Venezuela and Surinam (Distr. I. coindetii).